From Fairmount Avenue in Philadelphia, you can’t see over the 30-foot walls surrounding Eastern State Penitentiary. And once inside those walls, no one outside can hear you scream.

The green leaves may still be blowing in the warm, summer breezes, but Halloween hauntings have already begun at Philadelphia’s most frightening historic site.

This October marks the 20th year for Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State, the 182-year-old former prison that dominates the Fairmount neighborhood in Philadelphia.

Senior vice president Sean Kelley, director of public programming and public relations, is “totally stoked,” for this year’s event.

“We’re completely jazzed,” he said excitedly after a press conference in late August. “Our creative team is unbelievable. I’m totally pumped.”

The Terror Behind the Walls team has been planning for the 20-year anniversary event for a while, he said.

“We wanted something big and splashy,” Kelley said.

This fall, Eastern State Penitentiary is launching two new haunted sections in its Terror Behind the Walls haunted prison attraction, bringing the total to six terrifying areas for brave visitors to tour.

“The Gauntlet,” which replaces the area formerly known as “The Intake,” is one of the most ambitious attractions ever built for Terror Behind the Walls, according to Kelley.

“It’s a huge, creepy, outdoor maze with very baroque, iron fences,” he said. “They are eerie and scary. They’re huge.”

There are also catwalks over the maze where cast members can frighten visitors from above.

The second new scare is called “Break Out!” — totally new for 2011.

“Break Out!” is located in an area that is open during daytime tours and must be converted quickly for Terror Behind the Walls, said Jason Ohlsen, assistant director for design services.

Because “Break Out!” is in a shared space, Ohlsen decided to use “mobile scare units” that can be easily and quickly driven into that space after the daytime tours stop.

“It’s a very interactive experience,” Ohlsen said. “The audience becomes part of the show. It’s a scene like a riot and escape, using the visitors. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

The mobile units also fit the character of Terror Behind the Walls, Kelley said.

“Jason brought in old trucks from the 1950s, paddy wagons,” he said. “Our best costumed and trained actors will be there.”

The exact location of this experience is a secret. Just a tip: Never let your guard down at Terror Behind the Walls.

Eastern State Penitentiary began the audition process to find actors for the attraction in August.

View full sizeStaff photo by Kelly RoncaceActors Jessica Robert and Joe Larussa were in full custom, and in character at the press conference in late August. Both were looking forward to another season of scaring.

Amy Hollaman, director of employee services for Terror Behind the Walls, said interviewing for a position in the haunted house is different than most job interviews.

“First, we ask you to give us your best scream,” she said. “Then, you have to do a few minutes of improv as a guard and a prisoner.”

Hollaman looked for movement, style, loudness, voice variations, and the ability to scare when hiring.

“You have to do a startle scare,” she said. “The theatrical director walks through and you have to pop out with your best scare.”

Then, the hopeful cast members are asked to give two or three sentences about why they want to work at Eastern State’s Terror Behind the Walls.

“We tell them to go big or go home,” she said. “This isn’t your normal haunted house. We look for people who are intimidating and scary. It’s definitely not like any other job interview.”

Actors Joe Larussa, who has been a Terror actor for four years, and Jessica Robert, part of the cast for six years, were in full costume, and in character at the press conference. Both were looking forward to another season of scaring.

“The best part of working here, is simply working here,” Larussa said. “And being entertaining — makin’ ’em drop.”

Both actors agreed that Terror Behind the Walls has a great family team behind its success.

“The best part is being able to entertain with the scares, and physically interacting with your co-workers to get great reactions from the people,” she said.

When Eastern State Penitentiary held its first haunted attraction in 1991, it was called The Haunted Cellblocks of Eastern State Penitentiary, Kelley said. At the time, the prison had been vacant for many years.

“It would have been hard to predict, back then, the way Terror Behind the Walls would change the landscape of Eastern State,” he said. “Happy Halloween!”